Rallying
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day 1704b: After Quinn asked for his help, Puck knew he'd have to make a statement with his effort, but he was up to the task. - Berry-St series


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 81st cycle. Now cycle 82!_

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**"Rallying"  
In Gen2!world: G2!Puck, G2!Finn, G2!New Directions (G1!Quinn etc)  
Berry-St series  
_(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)_  
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They'd had an argument the day before and they weren't talking. At the time, Finn hadn't known about how it was him who'd gotten Quinn pregnant. He still thought it was his baby. Puck wasn't going to tell him, as he'd promised Quinn, but still he knew if things went on as they were going at the moment, it would be Finn who got to go and be with Quinn throughout the pregnancy, and if she happened to decide to keep the baby, rather than to put it up for adoption, it would be Finn that the kid saw as his or her father. There had been a great enough part of him that wished that wasn't so, that wished that he could be his own child's father. But then there was the other part, the one who knew deep down there was no way he would ever be anything more than a drunken hook up to Quinn Fabray, and that between the two of them, Finn had the makings of a better father. That didn't stop him from wanting to make sure his kid grew up alright, even before its birth. So he'd brought this up, in some fashion, to Finn, the day before the party. Finn had gotten angry at him, and Puck, having all this frustration in him, had risen to the occasion. It had come down to Finn walking away from him.

"What about the party, you're driving!" Puck had called after him.

"Screw the party," Finn had scoffed. "You go, what do I care?"

Those were the last words he'd spoken to Finn until after it was all over. And when it _was_ over, when Finn had visited him in the hospital, Puck had made him leave. As far as he was concerned, if Finn hadn't been such an idiot the day before, getting pissed at Puck who was only trying to help him, then Finn would have driven, which would have meant one more stop, which would have meant they wouldn't have been there, at that intersection, there where Matt would die and Mike would lose his leg… There really was no other way to look at it, not for him. They kept telling him the accident wasn't his fault, and he knew that. It wasn't his fault: it was Finn's.

After that, the truth coming out about him and Quinn and the baby almost seemed like an afterthought, but really it felt like he final nail in the coffin of the friendship they had once held as something closer to brotherhood.

Since Finn had joined them in Glee Club these past couple of weeks, they'd sat as far apart as they could go. Puck knew why he was there, why he was staying. He had no idea why Finn was there, why he was staying, too, and frankly he hadn't cared. But then Quinn… Quinn, that other one, she had to come and talk to him, ask him for his help, and as he'd tried to find some way of getting the rest of the club to rally, those damned words kept playing back in his head, over and over. _You go, what do I care? You go…_

It kept him up half the night, after Quinn had visited. It went on, all through the day after that, and then on the night, when it threatened to plague him once more, he'd had enough.

He needed to shout, to hit something, to do… something, anything, that would spend the energy bubbling in his gut like an angry storm cloud. Instead, he made a promise to himself, a vow, that if he was allowed sleep, he would make things right, as soon as the next day.

He overslept. The morning sun was raging outside as he hurried to get dressed and eat and grab his things and go. He spent the whole day pacing when he stood, tapping his foot when he sat, all the while waiting for them all to gather in the choir room. When time came, he was the first one there, and as they started filing in, he waited where he stood, counting them off. Once he'd reached that magic number twelve, before Schuester could show up, he'd moved up to stand in the middle of the room and face the others.

"I've got something to say," he declared, and while some of them were still chatting amongst themselves, others started to look up, and they tapped for the others to stop and listen, too. "Now I know we haven't all been a club for a while, but we need to do better than this if we're going to be good at this."

"Who died and made you boss?" Santana frowned.

"I might not be boss, but at least I'm up here trying to do something about this. What have _you_ been doing to fix this, uh? Nothing. So let me talk." Santana might have been too stunned to reply. Puck stole a look to Quinn, who smirked and nodded. _Go on._ He took a deep breath, running a hand through his Mohawk. "We could be good. No, screw that, we could be great. Rachel, your voice is insane. Britt, no one in this room can dance like you. Artie, man, you're committed, that's something…" He looked around at the others. "Sam, I don't really know you, but I like your energy. Mercedes, you tell anyone I said this and I'll deny it, but you almost got me crying one time when you were singing." That got a few chuckles. "Tina, you're sort of not in front a lot, and you're shy and all, but you make it work. Santana… do I even need to say anything?" She gave a sneaking sort of 'damn right' smirk. "Kurt, this might come as a shock to you, with how I've treated you before, but I think you've got one of the best voices in here." He'd been working his way down, keeping the hardest ones for last. "Quinn…" He knew very well this wasn't the same Quinn, but only very few of the people in this room would know that. "You're strong as hell," he said, and she smiled. He breathed in. "Mike, I don't know that I could be here if I'd gone through what you did, but you're here…" One more. He looked to Finn, who'd been watching him the whole time. "Last year, I lost one of my best friends. That should have been too much already, but I was angry… and I let myself lose another. I've done things in my life that I'm not proud of, but I don't want that to be what I am for the rest of my life. I didn't die that night, we…" he looked at Mike. "We didn't die. I think it's time I lived. Finn, I know you said you're not sure yet if you'll stay. Dude, you belong here. I know you can't see it yet, but I know you… You need this as much as I do." They were all silent for a few seconds. "Let's do this, okay?" he looked at them all. "Let's do this, for Matt."

"For Matt," Quinn was the first to voice her agreement. And one by one, they all said it.

"For Matt," Finn said it last, looking at Puck, and they shared a nod that carried more weight than any one word ever could.

Quinn wasn't sure when Mr. Schuester had arrived, but he was standing there, just inside the door, watching, listening. If he'd had any doubts left of where he belonged, they were gone. They were the New Directions, and they had work to do.

THE END

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**____********A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
****In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
************always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


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